The papers of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality have been listed as part of the 1967 & All That project|, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which marked the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality was the largest gay membership organisation of the 1970s and 1980s. It has its origins in the North-Western Committee of the Homosexual Law Reform Committee, which had been founded in Manchester by Allan Horsfall to support the campaign for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Throughout the 1970s, CHE was the main British homophile organisation, growing to 2,800 members and 60 local groups by 1972, the year of the first Gay Pride march through London. Its activities included lobbying parliament for further law reforms, providing educational material for use in schools, and attempting to influence the provision of medical, psychiatric and social services. In its heyday it had a strong social as well as political function.
The archive contains minutes, annual reports and correspondence of the CHE Executive Committtee, as well as a raft of pamphlets, leaflets and other publications collected by the organisation between the early 1970s and late 1990s relating to many aspects of gay life and campaigning in the UK and abroad.
Catalogue
The catalogues for the original 1992 deposit (HCA/CHE, 146 boxes), later 1997 deposit (HCA/CHE2, 52 boxes) and the records of CHE Cambridge branch (HCA/CHE CAMBRIDGE, 2 boxes) are available via the Archives Catalogue|.
Further information
The exhibition which was created for the 1967 and All That project is still available online as a blog: 1967 and all that blog|
For further information about the LGBT papers at LSE Archives, including the Hall-Carpenter Archives, see our Guide to Lesbian and Gay papers| or contact us: Contact details|